THE MIDNIGHT SPECIAL
The Fed, Treasury and Wall Street have set the best rattlesnake trap I’ve seen in a long time.
Here’s why: Run the numbers and the fundamentals show an unimaginable downturn in the economy with hyperinflationary headwinds that will hit sometime between next week and 4.5 years.
Wall Street will drop you on your ass but not until they can make a lot of money doing it. Treasury's printing hot checks and Fed's “quantitative easing,” sucking dry credit of Uncle Sam's wallet, can now control the clock to procrastinate the financial outcomes of a worldwide pandemic. Five years, but not forever.
Swamp lore: “rattlesnake trap” means the solution is worse than the problem—and that is the case with recent monetary and massive $10B fiscal and Fed stimulus to save the economy from a pandemic depression.
Story of free swamp money goes that once we had so many rattlesnakes a bounty of $1-per-foot placed on each dead one delivered to the government. At first, it worked. But then entrepreneurs began breeding rattlesnakes for the income, so the government had to cancel the program.
The breeders then released their snakes and a hyper-population exploded worse than ever.
If a downturn doesn’t happen, cheer and then know two or three economic fundamentals like supply and demand are wrong and support Andrew Yang with an update of Hoover’s slogan from "a chicken in every pot every Sunday" to “check in every mailbox—every month.” Yang Gang had a great vision—just needed a little help getting there.
Here is COVID timeline to 2022:
Therapeutics: Think Tamiflu for COVID while everybody else transfixed on a vaccine. Therapeutics are getting less attention but will save lives, reduce symptoms, and stop transmission—recurring revenue because every time our throat scratches, head to Walgreens and sales recur. Plus, think with the rush, first vaccine has showstopper-like deaths, and 40% of common conspirators say they won’t take vaccine.
Click here to sign up to read best public biotech COVID therapeutic company. There are hundreds of COVID biotech companies public and private. Our job is to give you one that has high probability odds based on a competitive advantage.
MBA Minute—All Shook Up. Now that the dust has settled on Airbnb’s reorg, we see two things: 1) a business mistake, and 2) new people with power at the company. Click here to sign up to read abbreviated biz case, lesson learned, and the new org chart of direct reports to co-founder Brian Chesky.
Brian Chesky, Airbnb CEO and co-founder.
Stick with supply and demand and play to win with this plan:
Credit where credit is due. When both Trump and Pelosi dismissed her, I should have seen this sooner and realized what I see now—set aside all the ideology positions for one second and this week emerged the most naturally politically talented modern communicator in Washington, DC, is AOC (Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez).
Here is the scoop: AOC elected as the youngest woman ever to Congress, will run for president in 2024, because she will meet the 35-year-old deadline by inauguration day. Interesting. By the way, is it Ted Yoho or Yahoo—maybe a great candidate to take first vaccine.
Good note. After a downturn, strong recovery and a better country.
Deal done next week. George Clooney will direct adaptation of "The Tender Bar" for Amazon Studios and is in deep negotiations with Bezos and team on final terms, which include if Clooney will also have a paid role in movie. Storyline about a young boy growing up in Long Island finds father figures in his uncle’s bar, all up Clooney's alley. He let go of his pet project, "The Boys in the Boat," about Olympic rowers.
Successful businesses in next five years will be how companies intersect free enterprise, social justice, and politics. The latter two we were trained to stay down middle. Now it will cost you customers and, most importantly, talent. The ping pong tables and foosball machines are a walk in the park compared to this level of brand relevancy and coolness.
When do you navigate, what do you choose, and how you communicate? We will discuss Aug 21 at Porsche.
Quick: Blind love with Beijing ends for three reasons—Shanghai has a contender to Nasdaq, the Star Board that’s winning global IPO deals. Trump admin has some legitimate concerns with whether we want to outsource 40% of our 5G network to a foreign adversary, and Trump has a reelection campaign with two lifelines: defund police and check China.
Continued COVID debate: I am not wearing one when I am driving alone in my car, even when the minivans pull up to the red light and give me the finger with a mask on it. But leaders do wear a mask if you are meeting with others in public. Hottest debate lingers if COVID socially toughest on singles or married? Easy answer. New first base: “Can we take off our masks?”
In the queue. 43,000 Silicon Valley evictions by the end of September. Brooklyn will be a street fight.
Not for public knowledge: 22 and counting Ga Bulldog football players with positive COVID, virtually all have been asymptomatic, for whatever that’s worth.
SEC athletic directors daily confidentially report COVID numbers via conference call to commissioner Greg Sankey. Robbins firm, do you see a legal problem with this? The financial problem is how do you pull plug on $2B of SEC football revenue? I'll tell you how. Not easy. Shitload of revenue with minimum labor costs.
Still chances of college football season are slim to none, and Slim left town with the rest of college students.
Here is the deal—next edition of "The Midnight Special" will be midnight Saturday, Aug 1st, then every Saturday at same time thereafter. I have finished my book, Redneck Reverie, and sent to publisher. Free man.
Book tour kickoff Aug. 21 at Porsche.
The New York Times Co. has named Meredith Kopit Levien CEO—maybe the most underestimated leader this year. Turned NY Times, a print ad sales company, into high-tech, profitable, digital enterprise, which just bought the podcast “Serial” for $25M down and $25M in an earnout.
Speaking of NYTimes, I like what Loren Feldman is doing with “Morning Report™”—trademark really looks good, thanks Wayne Lazarus. But what in the world was that anti-business editorial that entrepreneurs are root of all evil for accepting PPP? Inappropriate.
rrant&rave:// Glad the Dixie divorce is official—I have been out on a limb with them so long (Iraq War, Toby Keith dust up, and banishment from country radio). Dixie Chicks dropped Dixie from their name and now just called Chicks. Is that more offensive than Dixie? But dollar for dollar, I still say their harmony is described in one word: totemic.
Under Armour used COVID to balk on $280M sponsorship deal with UCLA. Enough blame to go around. Yes, a contract exists but UCLA did nothing to execute. Have we seen this before? Here, I give you six beautiful gold sponsorship contracts on a silver platter. I mean five—Willie Mayberry at PNC didn’t deal on this one. Smart Guy.
**Correction: All cards on table and apologies to Dr. Gay and Dr. Griffin for my massive US history mistake—“price tag for Andrew Jackson stepping on Lincoln’s reconstruction." Should have been Andrew Johnson.
Tomato Sandwich Recipe for Four
5 Ga-grown tomatoes
1 loaf of white bread
1 pint of Duke's Mayo (OK—we like mayonnaise)
Morton Salt
black pepper
The important thing about eating a summer tomato sandwich is you can’t have anything else with it because you don’t want any other food to interfere with the taste sensation that is transmitted to the brain. So nothing else on sandwich and no sides.
It’s time to get back into the fast lane. The Porsche Experience Center Atlanta is open and ready to provide you with unrivaled thrills fueled by world-class Porsche vehicles—with your safety in mind, of course. Ensuring our customers and staff remain healthy during this time is vitally important to us.
In order to achieve this goal, we’ve implemented some new measures to reduce risk. Both staff and visitors will be asked to wear masks at all times. Each car will be thoroughly sanitized before and after every experience. And on-track programs have been modified to accommodate social distancing best practices. We’re confident that these precautions will help protect the wellness of our guests while still providing a uniquely Porsche visit.
To welcome back our passionate local enthusiasts, we’ve prepared something special. We’re offering Georgia residents a 20% discount on all 90-minute driving experiences through July 31, 2020. Just enter code LOCAL20 during checkout, or call the number listed below and a member of our team will assist with your booking. (Proof of residency will be required at check-in.)
As always, your continued support and passion is important to everyone at the Porsche Experience Center Atlanta. We look forward to delivering an unforgettable Porsche experience to you once again, even if it looks a little different. If you have any questions, or would like assistance booking your visit, contact us at PECATLinfo@porsche.us or 888-204-7474.
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